Childfree Woman Refuses To Give Her Annual Leave Slot To A Coworker With Four Kids, Office Drama Ensues
You don’t need to be friends with your colleagues. You should, however, strive to keep your work relationships professional and civil. You’re spending so much time in each other’s company, why make it a drag? Neither the company nor you benefit from needless conflicts.
But some find it more difficult to manage their emotions than others. Or, as in this case, treat people the same way they would like to be treated themselves.
Yesterday, Reddit user Hallelujah999 submitted a story to the popular ‘Am I the A***ole?’ community, asking people to judge the way she’s treating her coworker.
Both of them wanted the same days for vacation and the policy is that in such a situation, the employees decide it with the luck of a draw. Which they did. Which Hallelujah999 won.
Under normal circumstances, everything should have ended there, but her colleague began pressuring the woman into giving up her days off and even damaging her reputation as a way to retaliate against the ‘injustice.’
Hallelujah999 is thinking about reporting the issue to HR but is still unsure if she’s seeing everything straight.
Two colleagues wanted to go on holiday at the same time but only one could, so they decided to settle it with a lottery
Image credits: Steve W (not the actual photo)
But the loser was left feeling bitter and began to stir up drama at the office
Image credits: Afif Kusuma (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Hallelujah999
Image credits: Hallelujah999
Whatever you think of the ballot system at Hallelujah999’s office, the fact of the matter is that managers should do more to ensure everything runs smoothly when employees want to take time off.
The average American’s workload increases by almost a third when covering for an absent co-worker.
A survey, conducted by OnePoll on behalf of cannabis telemedicine and delivery platform Nugg, asked 2,000 employees to assess the “cover crunch” they’re under when looking after an out-of-office co-worker’s responsibilities.
According to the results, over half of Americans (53 percent) find covering for a co-worker to be a significantly stressful event.
As a result, the quality of work may suffer, with 40 percent of respondents admitting they’ve phoned it in when covering for a co-worker and didn’t care if the job was done well or not.
However, when it comes to vacation scheduling conflicts, some experts think that it’s best to leave everything to the employees themselves.
Certain requests, like non-refundable airfares or those involving children’s schedules, may be difficult to change and situations like the one Hallelujah999 found herself in can put managers in a tough spot when determining whose leave to approve and who to disappoint.
Michael Steinitz, senior executive director at Accountemps, said leaders should promote open communication among the team: “[They should] encourage individuals to be aware of each other’s plans for time off so [everyone] can reach an amicable coverage schedule.”
Some people will have needs that are not flexible, but usually, the team will be able to shuffle things around in a way that works for everyone, Cox said. “I truly believe teams can solve their own problems when it is an expectation,” she said, “so my first step would be to get team members together and ask them to collectively help solve the issue and prioritize the time off schedule.”
“I truly believe teams can solve their own problems when it is an expectation,” Mindi Cox, senior vice president of people and great work at O.C. Tanner, added, “so my first step would be to get team members together and ask them to collectively help solve the issue and prioritize the time off schedule.”
However, since Hallelujah999’s colleague is clearly incapable of having a clam discussion, I think she should not feel guilty at all for involving HR.
People unanimously said the author of the post was being totally reasonable and it’s her coworker who’s out of line
I think the last comment sums it all up. People who do not have children still have family. Not having children doesn't mean you don't have loved ones that you want to spend time with.
Someone should point out to Entitled Mommy that, by her standards, when her kids are grown and have jobs, any time they try to take off to visit her is unimportant if a co-worker has kids.
Great point!
I have four kids and people who use their children like this infuriate me. Your children are not other people's problems. Having kids does not give you cart blanche to walk all over other people. Your children are not pawns to get what you want. Above all, having children does not make you better than or more worthy than people without children. Teach your children respect by showing it to everybody, including those without children.
It shouldn't matter if they are visiting loved ones, traveling abroad for fun, or staying home alone and staring at a wall. It should not be about what is "worthy" in anyone else's eyes. They're entitled to time off from work. I could see trying to negotiate if you wanted to attend event that was not movable. Other than that, I don't think the employer should be getting involved in determining the relative value of what you choose to do on vacation.
That's true.
My coworker told me why can't i cover their holiday since i am single and don't have kids. Sometime i shove them off politely but lately, i just told them that I was not hired to cover their holidays and weekend.
People like that you just have to be blunt with because they're so self-centered they seem to not understand.
Yeah.
They understand, they just don't care.
Your coworker is a b***h and needs to be reprimanded.
Where I work all parents with school aged children are bound to school holidays, when everything is way more expensive, so it's never a problem. The ones with small kids and no kids want time off outside of the holiday season. Way cheaper.
The ballot system sounds like a fair way to decide these things, but ultimately management needs to do a better job getting enough staff to cover for holidays. And having children does not give you any special entitlement to anything. Most people are understanding that now.
That's what I was thinking, if their job is essential, why can only 2 people ever be missing at a time? That seems terribly fragile for something that's essential
Thats how it was in twonof my jobs in animal shelters. We were severely understaffed to the point that only 1 person per team (so 2 total) could be off at a time. Once somebody was off and then a second person was ill and it was an absolute chaos. It was maddening how understafed we were.
That's how it is for my sister, a phlebotomist at a cancer center. They aren't big enough to support extra phlebotomists and she draws the blood and processes the paperwork that goes with it to the lab. They can't risk the mistakes that a temp, even an experienced one, could make. The only real option is to have management help with the paperwork while the other phlebotomists pick up her blood draws.
That's how it was at a past hospital I was at. Only 2 people off at any given time, regardless of shift. However, it usually went by something like who requested first and seniority.
I did medical billing for a hospital system and insurance has so many timeline rules and we swamped. We had a hold at one point on even taking a vacation, so there are jobs out there that actually cannot afford to have two people in a dept gone at one time, unless they wish to write off thousands to millions of dollars, literally. This is something that would have never occurred to me, until I worked in that position. And, it was extremely difficult to cover for someone's accounts when they were out.
If my vacation ever happens to overlap a coworker's...it's ultimately not my problem! It's up to management to figure it out and make it happen. Unless I had reservations or plane tickets I could potentially move things a day or 2 forward or back but mgmt has never asked me to do this. It helps that I don't plan a vacation during the height of the busy season. I've been at the same place for a decade and have never had a problem in our small company with 2 of us having overlapping vacays.
I think the last comment sums it all up. People who do not have children still have family. Not having children doesn't mean you don't have loved ones that you want to spend time with.
Someone should point out to Entitled Mommy that, by her standards, when her kids are grown and have jobs, any time they try to take off to visit her is unimportant if a co-worker has kids.
Great point!
I have four kids and people who use their children like this infuriate me. Your children are not other people's problems. Having kids does not give you cart blanche to walk all over other people. Your children are not pawns to get what you want. Above all, having children does not make you better than or more worthy than people without children. Teach your children respect by showing it to everybody, including those without children.
It shouldn't matter if they are visiting loved ones, traveling abroad for fun, or staying home alone and staring at a wall. It should not be about what is "worthy" in anyone else's eyes. They're entitled to time off from work. I could see trying to negotiate if you wanted to attend event that was not movable. Other than that, I don't think the employer should be getting involved in determining the relative value of what you choose to do on vacation.
That's true.
My coworker told me why can't i cover their holiday since i am single and don't have kids. Sometime i shove them off politely but lately, i just told them that I was not hired to cover their holidays and weekend.
People like that you just have to be blunt with because they're so self-centered they seem to not understand.
Yeah.
They understand, they just don't care.
Your coworker is a b***h and needs to be reprimanded.
Where I work all parents with school aged children are bound to school holidays, when everything is way more expensive, so it's never a problem. The ones with small kids and no kids want time off outside of the holiday season. Way cheaper.
The ballot system sounds like a fair way to decide these things, but ultimately management needs to do a better job getting enough staff to cover for holidays. And having children does not give you any special entitlement to anything. Most people are understanding that now.
That's what I was thinking, if their job is essential, why can only 2 people ever be missing at a time? That seems terribly fragile for something that's essential
Thats how it was in twonof my jobs in animal shelters. We were severely understaffed to the point that only 1 person per team (so 2 total) could be off at a time. Once somebody was off and then a second person was ill and it was an absolute chaos. It was maddening how understafed we were.
That's how it is for my sister, a phlebotomist at a cancer center. They aren't big enough to support extra phlebotomists and she draws the blood and processes the paperwork that goes with it to the lab. They can't risk the mistakes that a temp, even an experienced one, could make. The only real option is to have management help with the paperwork while the other phlebotomists pick up her blood draws.
That's how it was at a past hospital I was at. Only 2 people off at any given time, regardless of shift. However, it usually went by something like who requested first and seniority.
I did medical billing for a hospital system and insurance has so many timeline rules and we swamped. We had a hold at one point on even taking a vacation, so there are jobs out there that actually cannot afford to have two people in a dept gone at one time, unless they wish to write off thousands to millions of dollars, literally. This is something that would have never occurred to me, until I worked in that position. And, it was extremely difficult to cover for someone's accounts when they were out.
If my vacation ever happens to overlap a coworker's...it's ultimately not my problem! It's up to management to figure it out and make it happen. Unless I had reservations or plane tickets I could potentially move things a day or 2 forward or back but mgmt has never asked me to do this. It helps that I don't plan a vacation during the height of the busy season. I've been at the same place for a decade and have never had a problem in our small company with 2 of us having overlapping vacays.